Switching Times: Meaningful or Gimmicky

[John Dobbs]

Discussion is sometimes made about switching Sunday School / Worship times so that SS follows worship. The thought (and apparently the result) is that more people attend SS. That's a good thing. But does it last? And is it a meaningful move or a kind of Gimmicky? And what role to donuts play in that?

John Dobbs

[James Nored]

John, I have put out many of my thoughts on this subject in a previous post. I just do not think that this can be deemed a success by an increase in Bible class attendance. First, I have heard mixed things about this. Some have had it help, others have seen little increase. Second, there are many questionable premises behind this, such as:

- Premise #1 - Our people need more weekly, big class Bible studies. This is already offered in most churches on Wed. night and in small groups (which usually are not very small). And many other fellowships--including a sub-group of our own--do not offer this, and yet still manage to stay "faithful." If we are going to promote something else in our church schedule, is this the right thing? Have we assumed that this should be a major goal without thinking about this?

- Premise #2 - Information equals transformation. The reason we have emphasized study so much is because of our enlightenment heritage. But the premise is false. A Bible class teacher recently asked a large class if Bible class changed behavior. Not a single person raised their hand. Our reliance upon classes to transform people has failed, and the evidence is everywhere. (By the way, I love classes and learning.) Do we need a certain amount of information? Yes. But most of us know far, far, more than we do. Our level of knowledge is much greater than our level of obedience.

- Premise #3 - This will help our mission. In fact, if we believe that worship is a more likely entry point for seekers than a Bible class in our building, then the opposite is true. The research in my previous post shows that earlier start times for worship would be difficult for our culture. How many seekers are lost by changing times? This is an uncounted number.

It seems like this is totally an established, traditional church mentality. I do not know of any church plant that has had a 9 AM start time for worship. Of course, everything is context specific, and so there be some community where this is appropriate. But it does not seem to be the case for most churches. This seems to be an attempt to prop up traditional markers, rather than missional markers, such as number of people fed and clothed, number of people baptized from the community, etc.

Coffee and donuts are nice. I am for them. But community is much deeper than this. These conversations in these 10-15 minutes usually end up being repetitive. They are better than nothing. But the deepest form of ommunity is developed through serving together and having profound, shared experiences that are out of the norm (commintas).

[John Dobbs]

Thanks James. I looked around for a discussion of this but didn't find the excellent reply you just gave. I agree with all that you have said. I do think that increased participation in Sunday School is a good thing for families (kids have classes at the same time), can increase participation in thought processes, and if done well can be a time that is looked forward to. One might say that if these things were so, then our Sunday Schools would be flooded with participants and we would not be having this discussion. I think that would be so.

Is this one of those items that we need to acknowledge that the horse is dead, permission to dismount?

John

[Chris Walker]

I pastored a church that made this change. The reason -- Sunday school was always running over. . . So, stick it after the one service to let people linger as long as they want. Midsize church, under 150 people. Sunday school was more about fellowship than content in that congregation, so this structure worked. Evangelistic it wasn't. Missional it wasn't.

If Sunday School is part of your churches outreach efforts (ours wasn't), then the answer to the question may be entirely different.

James, I agree with you on the claim more information does not equal transformation. In Evangelism Where You Live: Engaging Your Community by Stephen Pate, he stakes a whole chapter on this claim and then uses it to launch an effective model of church based missional engagement in the neighborhood.

Chris W
EvangelismCoach.org